contraband. They were going to stop the
hats, on the ground that they were "adapted for military uniforms,"
and I had to get a "character" from one of my friends, a clerk in the
Custom House, and then assure the crusty old Collector that the hats
were not to be used for any illegal purpose, before he would let them
pass.

FROM W. C. G.

_Pine Grove, May 17._ The schooner has but just come round to
Coffin's, and the rain has prevented our plundering her with energy.
But Friday I got up my molasses and gave some out yesterday. You ought
to have seen the little ones dance as the mothers came home with their
piggins full. We are going to give some molasses and bacon monthly for
the present,--in lieu of an increase of wages. Most of the proprietors
are offering rather better terms than the Government,--some in money,
others in a larger share of the crop. We keep the Government scale of
prices, but give them the "poke" and "sweet'ning," and I think have
touched their sensibilities much more certainly thereby.

This same day Mr. and Mrs. Philbrick left Port Royal and
went home. The next extracts are from two of H. W.'s
letters, full of details about the home life and the
wonderful ways of the "people."

FROM H. W.

_June 10._ As we drove up under the shade of a buttonwood-tree [at
Fripp Point] we found a group of children under it, three or four boys
and girls washing at wash-tubs, others sitting round taking care of
younger children. They were just like children all over the
world,[131] playing and teasing each other, but very good-naturedly,
and as happy as you please. This weather the children wear nothing but
a shift or shirt, and the other day Lewis and Cicero appeared in the
yard entirely naked. Aunt Sally, from Eddings Point, amused us with
her queer, wild talk a long time. The story is that she was made crazy
by her master's whipping her daughter to death, and very sad it was to
hear her talk, though it was funny. She knows any number of hymns and
parts of the Bible, and jumbles scraps and lines from the one with
Genesis and Revelation in the most extraordinary manner, talking about
Mr. Adam and Madam Eve, who brought her and her race all their woe,
whom she knows but will never forgive. She stands and reads everything
out of her "heart-book," which she says tells her everything, looking
all the time at her left hand, which she holds out like a book. Her
epithets against her old master and th